Steel end for cars



E. WILLIAMS STEEL END FQR CARS Patented Feb. 17, 1925 PATENT OFFICE.

WILLIAM ERASTUS WILLIAMS, OF WILMETTE, ILLINOIS.

STEEL END FOR CAR-S.

Application fiIed September 3, 1924. Serial No. 735,587.

To all whom, it may co /warn:

Be it known that I, WILLIAM ERASTUS WILLmMs, a citizen of the UnitedStates, and a resident of Wilmette, county of Cook,

and State of Illinois, have invented a new and useful Improvement inSteel Ends for Cars, of which the following is a specification.

The object of my invention is to produce a pressed steel end for afreight car that will bestiff in every direction and require the leastmetal for furnishing the requisite stiffness for a car end.

Reference will be had to the accompanying drawing in which Figure 1 is afront elevation of my end.

Figure 2 is a transverse sectional portion on line 22 of Fig. 1.

Figure 3 is a transverse section on line as of ig. 1.

Figure 4 is a transverse section on line 4r4: of Fig. 1.

Figure 5 is a transverse section on line 5-5 of Fig. 1. r

A common practice heretofore in making steel ends for freight cars hasbeen to press corrugations either vertically or horizontally more orless parallel to each other, so that the end may be stiff in onedirection but relatively weak in another direction. The

ends heretofore most generally used transmit the load either entirelyacross to the end posts or entirely up and down from the sill to theroof sections leaving more or less neutral axis zones in the otherdirections.

With my invention I arrive at almost a complete uniform stiffness inevery direction, so that the end thrust of the cargo within the freightcar is transferred as a unit to all four sides of the ends which is agreat desideratum.

I arrive at the stiffening of my end sheet by a series of depressionspressed within the sheet in a peculiar arrangement in a manner to avoida direct neutral axis.

In the drawing 1 indicates the flat plate portion of the end, 2indicates the side flanges of the end, and 3 indicates the top flange.

A flange on the bottom indicated by 4 which is substantially like theside flanges 2 is shown only by dotted lines in Fig. 1.

Within the body of the sheet I emboss a series of annular cup shapedportions indicated by 5 see Fig. 5, the cup side preferably being in theinterior of the car.

This annular cup shaped portion 5 surrounds a central projection 6 whichprojection is in some respects similar to the form of some cake bakingpans which have a central projection extending up through the body ofthe cake to be baked therein save only that my projection 6 is notperforated but has a solid bottom, as shown in the figures.

These annular cup shaped portions are connected horizontally to eachother by means of depressions 7 the word depression referring to theinside of the car. Of course, this will produce a male projection on theoutside of the car.

Corresponding vertical depressions 8 connect the annular cups 5 in asimilar manner to the horizontal depressions 7.

Were it not for the central projections 6 on the annular cup 5 theneutral axis would lie across through the projections 7 and 8 and thus Iwould have a neutral axis in each direction not stiffened by anydepression, rib or corrugation, but by means of the central projection 6there is no direct line neutral axis, so that any line of rupture orneutral axis of bending moment across the plate will be compelled tofollow in and out and around the depressions 7 and 8 and the annularcups 5 thus making a more or less truss effect as involved in thebending stresses in a sheet of this class.

What I claim is:

1. A car end structure stiffened by annular depressions connected toeach other by depressed cross ribs merging into the an nulardepressions, and said annular depressions having projections extendingupward in their central regions to the normal flat surface of the plate.

2. A car end structure, stiffened by horizontal and vertical depressionsin the fiat sheet, and said depressions merging at their intersectionsinto ring shaped depressions, and the latter provided With centralstiffening projections.

3. A car end structure, stiffened by horizontal and vertical depressionsin the fiat sheet, and said depressions merging at their intersectionsinto ring shaped depressions, and the latter provided With centralstiffening projections, and the said sheet flanged 10 on its edges.

Signed at Chicago in the county of Cook, and State of Illinois, this30th day of August, 1924.

WILLIAM ERASTUS WILLIAMS.

\Vitnesses v HAZEL G. BUEOKER, JAMES J. B. ORTH.

